Referees improve by learning from other referees. It's just how it works. Having read and implemented items from
For The Good Of The Game, I can tell you that while it sounds plausible, you don't add it to your toolkit until you've seen it successfully implemented.
New referees learn from those around them, and a good assignor will put them with more experienced referees (I don't know of an assignor that doesn't at the Club level, Recreation is another story for another blog post), and in a perfect world will be there for their first few matches. In a perfect world. In the world we live in, it is rare to see an assignor at the fields on Saturday, but when he is, you take heed of what he says.
We don't get that option too often, and that's why we rely on other referees.
The problem is, some of the other referees have developed bad habits, or worse, referee'd with the NFHS, and brought some NFHS guidelines over to USSF. Before I begin stirring hornet's nests, let me say that the only understanding I've gained from NFHS is from the rogue poster who posted the differences between NFHS Rules and FIFA's Laws of the Game. I say rogue because everything I've seen on the 'net lends credence to the fact that NFHS doesn't want its rulebook published unless you send them money.
This weekend, as I have been in other weekends, I was with a few NFHS referees through various matches. In the first, I was the Center referee (CR), and in the second, the Assistant Referee (AR). For the first match, a U14 Boys match, I had the honor of knowing at least one of the teams prior to the game -- I had refereed their matches when they were at the younger age group, and so I knew what to expect. The second team was made up of mostly hispanic players, and I knew that they would be 'ball handlers', mostly. As we were checking the teams' passes, my NFHS AR looked somewhat shocked when I didn't open with a spiel about Sportsmanship, or what I expect, or how I'd call the game, or yadda-yadda-yadda. He even asked me, right there, "Aren't you going to say anything to them?"
Short answer? No. There's nothing I need to say. They know how to play the game, they know what fouls are, and they know what they can and can't do. If they don't, then we should fire the coach and hire one that will teach them such things. It's not my function. My function is to fairly arbitrate the Laws of the Game, without prejudice.
The NFHS, I'm told, requires that referees have a 'pep talk' with players before the match about Sportsmanship. Given what I've seen from High school games, they should just cut out the requirement, because it isn't working.
This brings me to the second match. A different referee, long steeped in the lore of NFHS rules, had a 'pep' talk with each U14 girl's Team, about Sportsmanship, about how "He'd play advantage when possible", and about how they should 'talk to their hotheads' so they didn't get in his face. Overall, I wouldn't have wanted to have this guy as a referee if I were a player, he sucked all of the fun out of playing.
During the match, a player was tackled near the coaches' touchline at the halfway line, and he called the foul. It legitimately wasn't a situation where there was any sort of advantage that could have been gained by the team that had been fouled. She didn't go down, but the foul kept her from advancing, and made time for two defenders to swarm her.
The coach was naturally livid that the referee didn't play advantage, and shouted such. "You said you were going to play advantage! Why didn't you play advantage?? You should do what you said you would do!". Astute readers will catch the irony in the coaches inability to discern what advantage is, even against his somewhat idiotic expectation that there could have been an advantage given for that foul.
I feel somewhat sympathetic towards the coach, though it doesn't excuse his outburst. Players and coaches expect us to do what we say we are going to do. The referee, had it not been for his long exposure to NFHS rules, may have never started that fateful conversation with players in the first place, opening himself up to needless dissent by an understandably irate coach.
You may wonder what my pre-game check-in consists of. If I have two referees that I know aren't going to go off on a tangent, then I'll ask each to check a team in, while I chat with each coach, ask them how they are doing, and introduce myself. If at all possible, I try to learn and remember their name, so that if we have an issue in the match (say where they've gotten a little two loud with their dissent, or it keeps persisting), I'll walk over to them at an opportune moment, and say, "Bob, listen, you sound like you don't like how this game is going. I understand your frustration -- could you tone it done a little bit?" This is done on a case by case basis. Some coaches are amicable to smiles before the match, others seem to be adversarial, and it's much harder to approach them to make a good first impression. Invariably, these are the coaches I have problems with. If I can make that good first impression, then I can spend the first 30 minutes of the match in relative peace and quiet, able to focus on administering the LotG fairly.
If I have two ARs that I'm not comfortable with (say two junior ARs, or two middle aged ARs that have done NFHS), then we'll check the teams in together. We'll normally approach the Home team first (to give the visiting team more time to warm up -- it is important not to make the visiting team think you are unfairly picking on them, they are after all, the strangers, and inherently feel out of place), and make a bee-line for the Team Manager (you can normally tell who it is since they have player passes and the match report). I'll exchange a few words with them, and they'll give me the player passes, which I'll pass off to an AR. If I've developed a good initial rapport with the team Manager or Coach, I'll ask them to help me by calling off the names on the player passes. This saves me from 1) Butchering names (or having to call by number, and 2) allows my head to stay up and maintaining eye contact with the players, to seem confident. If I haven't, it usually goes like this. The coach has already told his players to line up (sadly, because of our NHFS brethren) and I'll say, "Gents (or Ladies), we'll call your number, give us your name, and go back to whatever you were doing." One AR will call the number off the pass, the other will match the name to the sheet, and I'll subtly check each player's equipment as they pass. After we're done with that team, I'll let the coach know that we have about X minutes to game time, and that we'll call for captains shortly.
Rinse. Lather. Repeat. I'm just as brief to the captains. They come, they shake hands, I show the coin, show heads and tails (I don't use standard coins, I'll use soccer-esque coins), and ask who wants to call it. They call it, and I ask them which side they'd like to attack, they pick, and I recap what just happened, and they leave.
I give final reminders to my ARs (check the nets: note any holes, back me up on time), and then send them off to the nets.
If both teams are taking their time getting out to the field, I'll let them (unless there is a closely scheduled match on the same field). If one team is out and the other doesn't look close to coming out, I'll have the SAR say something. If they look like they are close to coming out, I normally won't force the issue with a whistle. Simply put, I gain nothing from being a hardass, and lose the 'easy going feeling' that everyone has until the first foul is called.
As a referee, we don't need to make things harder for ourselves by being dictatorial when it doesn't suit the Spirit of the Game. We are required and encouraged to be that way when it's necessary, but where NFHS goes wrong is that they Americanized a game that doesn't need it, and in the process have hurt what makes Soccer special -- its spirit.
Labels: FIFA, NFHS, Pregame, Spirit of the Game, USSF